Prof. Nurşin Güney

📌 Italy-Turkey defence: from the TB3 to GCAP, a partnership Europe can no longer ignore 🇮🇹🇹🇷✈️ 🚢 On March 25, Italy’s Chief of Navy announced the intent to procure Baykar’s TB3 for operations aboard the Cavour carrier. The acquisition will go through Leonardo, via LBA Systems — the joint venture established after the Leonardo-Baykar MoU in March 2025, with production sites across four Italian locations. This signals a change in the strategic positioning of Italy. 🛩️ The TB3 is a MALE drone engineered for short-deck carriers: folding wings, reinforced landing gear, autonomous take-off and landing, 280kg payload, SATCOM for beyond-line-of-sight operations. It has already operated from the TCG Anadolu. Italy’s Cavour is the next platform. The UK and Japan are watching closely. 🤝 The TB3 acquisition sits within a larger industrial arc. Through LBA Systems, Italy is already set to co-produce the Kizilelma — a jet-powered, stealth-capable combat drone with beyond-visual-range engagement capacity. In mid-2026, Leonardo will demonstrate an M-346 commanding two Kizilelma in loyal wingman configuration. Kizilelma is also one of the platforms under discussion for the unmanned wingman role in GCAP, the 6th-generation fighter programme developed by Italy, the UK, and Japan. The industrial logic is compounding fast. 📊 This is not peripheral to Leonardo’s strategy. The March 2026 Industrial Plan lists LBA Systems as one of four explicit drivers for Aeronautics order growth through 2030, projecting revenues in that segment to rise from €3.6bn to €5.5bn. Unmanned systems sit in the same product portfolio as GCAP and Eurofighter. Baykar is now embedded in the financial architecture of one of Europe’s largest defence contractors. 🌊 What Italy is endorsing is a different logic of sea power: smaller carriers, unmanned systems, distributed and scalable airpower. TB3 today, Kizilelma tomorrow. LBA Systems is already set to building both on Italian soil. The industrial integration is ahead of the political framework. 🇪🇺 Europe’s relationship with the Turkish defence industry is already real — it is just not yet honest about what it is. Once shared systems enter active service, the partnership changes in kind. At some point, the EU will have to answer a question it has been content to defer: when does de facto security integration require a formal framework, rather than a patchwork of bilateral deals?